Comments on: Right to buy counterfeit

By: rus b

rus b — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 19:23:27 +0000

All for it. As far as medicine goes, anyone remember Bayer knowingly selling HIV infected medicine? I think they are a “LEGITIMATE” company.

By: Kone Zi

Kone Zi — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 07:25:50 +0000

The consumer always has a choice: not to buy it. When it comes to fashion, people buy counterfeit because simply they are vain. There are equivalent quality items that are not brand name or pretend to be brand name could be bought for much less, but many people are so eager to own a brand name, even if it is a knockoff. It’s vanity.

The problem with counterfeit is when it is sold as authentic, at the price similar to authentic.
Some counterfeits are so good now it is hard (not impossible) to distinguish from the real ones.
Take Rayban for example, just for one model, 20% of the listing
are selling counterfeit. The sellers may not even realize
that they are selling
counterfeit version as the imitation is very good.
However, they are still inferior
quality and there are some subtle
differences from the original.

When the counterfeit are
good copies, it is difficult for buyers to tell,
especially if the
sunglasses don’t break shortly after purchase.

I had an real, original Rayban
3320, but I lost it. A replacement I bought on eBay
from a seller with
many positive feedback broke few months after I purchased it.
After
sending it to Rayban for repair, they responded with a letter indicating it
is
a counterfeit and I was surprised. Considering that I actually owned a
real one
before that and I wasn’t even able to tell. Later, I bought
another
real one from a store and compared the two and saw some subtle
differences.

The issue here is that I had no reason to suspect that I was buying
counterfeit. I wasn’t shopping for one. I bought from a reputable seller
who has many good feedbacks, and I paid about retail price, expecting
to get an real Rayban. Yet, despite of the fact I owned an identical
model before, it still fooled me. Fortunately, the inferior material quality
caused it to break and I was able to find out. After comparing again to the
real one, you can see the difference in quality in that particular part.

So yes, counterfeit harms consumers who don’t even want to buy counterfeit
because it taints the supply chain.

Sunglasses already could be a problem as the optics could be made of glasses of low quality and
risk breaking. There are also other dangerous scenarios where counterfeit electronics
could fail:

http://www.edn.com/article/457610-Distributors_fight_counterfeit_components.php

In India an othe developing nations, counterfeit medicine is a big issue. The counterfeit doesn’t have to pass strict quality control and could endanger the health of many people.

Furthermore, pirating intellectual property harms the author. Sure the price could best
set lower according to the local economy and purchase power as Microsoft finally
did in China. However, $5 DVD did not eliminate piracy completely either.
DVD still offers more features and better quality audio and video than something
downloaded from iTune if we are comparing price of legitimate distribution.
You often get multiple languages in subtitle and audio on a DVD movie, and that is a premium many still are willing to pay.

By: lekhni

lekhni — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:26:01 +0000

sanjukta: Thanks! I believe we will see more and more people downloading movies and burning their own DVDs. Already iTunes allows movie downloads that are cheaper than store bought DVDs.. if DVD/ downloaded movie costs come down to $1, piracy should come down drastically.

By: sanjukta

sanjukta — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 00:02:07 +0000

Very well reasoned point of view. Totally in agreement with you.

By: lekhni

lekhni — Sat, 31 May 2008 04:25:02 +0000

Arunima:
A Cynic in Wonderland: I have read about a lot of companies selling fake pills on the Internet..I look forward to reading your post
Kamini: I agree, cheating consumers is immoral and unethical. But the case where there is no cheating is just free markets in operation.
dipali: Right, it’s not about whether I personally buy fake brands, but I do not see why I should not be allowed to if I wanted to.
Plus, while pirated books and CDs do reduce royalties, the bigger losses are really to the publishers. Again, perhaps if those books were properly priced, more people would have bought the original..

By: Right to buy counterfeit at Blogbharti

Right to buy counterfeit at Blogbharti — Thu, 29 May 2008 06:29:43 +0000

[...] Lekhni defends her right to buy counterfeit goods: Three reasons: [...]

By: dipali

dipali — Sat, 24 May 2008 09:24:03 +0000

Very interesting perspective. I need to think some more.
Since I’m personally quite anti-brand snobbery and believe in buying something of good quality irrespective of its pedigree, the entire fake, wannabe scene seems so pathetic. Which is not saying it isn’t real.
I guess rich people need to be exclusive, and poorer people need material goods to aspire to, which is what this entire market caters too. But pirated books and music reduce even the tiny copyright that the creator gets from authorised sources. And those who manufacture or deal in spurious drugs are beyond the pale.

By: Kamini

Kamini — Fri, 23 May 2008 14:50:48 +0000

You are absolutely right. Counterfeiters operate on the same principles of economics and the capitalistic model that “regular” companies do. If you remove the moral and ethical dimensions, it’s a simple case of supply and demand.
Kamini.

By: A Cynic in Wonderland

A Cynic in Wonderland — Fri, 23 May 2008 11:08:47 +0000

the first kind – the cheated kind, the figures are astounding. i recently did some work in counterfeit medicines – 1 out of every 3 pills you take is a counterfeit? it doesnt matter where you buy it from.
ok. i went off on a tangent. but the figures have been haunting me for a while. been meaning to do a post for ages. maybe now i shall start it.